3. For I passed on to you first of all what I also had received, that Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for our sins in accordance with [what] the Scriptures [foretold], [Isa. 53:5-12.]
4. That He was buried, that He arose on the third day as the Scriptures foretold, [Ps. 16:9, 10.]
5. And [also] that He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve.
6. Then later He showed Himself to more than five hundred brethren at one time, the majority of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep [in death].
7. Afterward He was seen by James, then by all the apostles (the special messengers),
8. And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one prematurely and born dead [no better than an unperfected fetus among living men].
9. For I am the least [worthy] of the apostles, who am not fit or deserving to be called an apostle, because I once wronged and pursued and molested the church of God [oppressing it with cruelty and violence].